Common Ground
by Mess
Summary: In which young Severus Snape and Bellatrix Black strike up a friendship, over tea and torture.


**Common Ground**

The room was dingier, darker, and danker than any other part of the dungeons. The caretaker didn't even attempt to take care of it, in spite of his title. Severus often wondered if the man keep it this way on purpose - holding it in reserve for some particularly nasty detention. The Squib seemed to like forcing students to do menial non-magical labor. It probably made him feel like a big man, instead of the puny near-Muggle. 

Not that it mattered. The important thing was that no one but Severus made much use of the place. Cobwebs clung to the ceiling, there were no windows to speak of, and all of the furniture was old and rotting. A great cavernous hearth gaped open from the back wall like an empty maw, ready to swallow the rest of the chamber into some unknown hell. 

It was not the sort of room that anyone in their right mind would spend significant amounts of time in. That was what Severus Snape liked about it. 

Here, in the dungeons, he was not a target like he was in the library. While his housemates carried on in the common room, he could read his books in peace. The darkness had bothered Severus at first, but it was beginning to become... comforting. Comfortable. Like camouflage, or the soothing weight of heavy velvet curtains shielding his bed. 

(Not that he was _afraid_, of course. He was studious. If no one was going to appreciate his obvious talents, then he might as well spend time alone. That attitude had nothing to do with fear. If people called him insufferable, well, they were just jealous, and he would pay no attention to them. No attention at all. None. Never.)

Severus settled into a corner, and pulled an ominous-looking book out of his rucksack. He had managed to sneak in to the Restricted Section in the confusion following of one of Potter's ill-conceived 'pranks'. _Morgaine's Magical Mysteries_ had bloody well better be good. Severus was likely to get into quite a lot of trouble if he were caught with a stolen copy of it. 

Fortunately, Severus had grown up on Knockturn Alley, and not in some disgustingly quaint wizarding village, or sheltered country manor. He was awfully good at hiding things. Just a few dark charms, and most idiots would think that a bag stuffed with gold was a pauper's purse. That was the way Mum had hidden his tuition money from Father, so that Severus could come to Hogwarts. 

Severus hoped that Mum had been able to afford more painkillers. Sometimes Mr.Sterling gave her discounts. 

The book had to be good. It _had_ to. Severus had spent all afternoon doing boring Herbology homework so that he could have a nice, enlightening Friday evening. The house elves had even prepared him a thermos of tea.

"How DARE she talk to me that way?!"

Severus flinched. He knew that shriek.

Bellatrix Black blew in to the room like a tropical storm, stomping and bellowing and eventually slamming the door shut, as though she could rattle the very foundations of the castle with her fury. The messy black braid that she usually wore had come undone, so that her hair stuck out at odd angles. Her patent-leather shoes were scuffed, and her robes were rumpled and ruined. 

Once Bellatrix had checked that the door was firmly shut, the shrieking continued. 

"I don't care that she'd a prefect - I'm her sister! She shouldn't dock house points from ME! I'll show HER what's 'unbecoming to a lady'.... NARCISSA IS A STUPID COW AND I WISH SHE WERE DEAD!!!"

It sounded like Bellatrix had gotten into another scrap with one of the other second-years. And it sounded like Narcissa Black had finally finally had enough of Bellatrix darkening their good name with her tomboy antics. 

Severus hadn't been aware that anyone else made use of this place. 

So much for peace and quiet.

"Do you _mind_?" Severus said waspishly, from his corner. He might be the runt of this year's Slytherin litter, and an unrepentant geek, and a punching-bag for rowdy Gryffindors, but dammit, this was _his_ place to sulk and plot and rage, and he was not going to give it up because some annoying relative of Sirius Black needed a place to vent_. _Dumbledore probably gave the Gryffindors entire _classrooms_ in which to plot Severus' daily humiliation. Severus had to hold on to what he could get. 

"Oh. Snape. You're in here," Bellatrix said, offhandedly, as if he were some particularly unremarkable species of lichen clinging to the castle walls. For someone who spent much of his free time wishing desperately for people to leave him alone, Severus felt oddly put-out that he hadn't been noticed. 

Bellatrix paused for a moment, and then stalked over to where Severus was sitting. If she'd been taller, she might have loomed. 

"If you tell Narcy I said that, I'll make your life a living hell! Don't think I won't!"

Severus thought on that. It was hard to concentrate with her glaring at him, but he could manage. 

"Yeah. You probably would. But if I told Narcissa about you badmouthing her, then I'd be taking take you right down with me," Severus let loose a nasty, contemplative little chuckle, that had absolutely no business coming from an eleven year-old. It made a special exception for really gifted Slytherins. "It might be worth it, to get at a Black."

Bellatrix rolled her eyes, "Like Sirius cares what happens to me. Auntie Livia says he's going to end up like Andromeda. After the sorting, she forbade Cousin Regulus to owl him. The brat pesters me instead."

Andromeda was the middle Black sister. Severus didn't know much about her, except that she'd suffered the indignity of having been sorted into Hufflepuff, and therefore Was Not To Be Spoken Of, Ever. Not if you were wise enough to avoid attracting the wrath of Narcissa Black. The subtle social machinations of Slytherin girls were terrifying at the best of times, and Narcissa ruled over that particular pit of vipers with a velvet fist. 

Now that Severus thought about it, it really was no wonder that Bellatrix apparently wasn't getting on well with Narcissa the rest of the Slytherin females. She was about as subtle as a rampaging nundu. 

"Hmph," Severus huffed, and looked back down at his book. "Your Aunt Livia's a smart woman."

Severus read a few lines about the uses of virgins' blood from the book, before he realized that the girl hadn't left yet. Instead, she'd sat down by the hearth. That was annoying. Severus had been hoping that she'd lose interest and go back to the common room or the lake or wherever she spent time when she wasn't making Severus uncomfortable. Had Black gotten to her after all? Was this some kind of trick? What fresh torture could those Gryffindor prats have in store for him?

"Where are Rodolphus and Rastaban?" Severus' eyes narrowed with suspicion, while his mind catalogued all of the possible ways that this could be meant to humiliate him.

"Off talking about Quidditch with that moron Avery, instead of meeting me like I asked them to," Bellatrix growled, removing a package of chocolate frogs from her robes. Oh, hell, she was setting up _camp_. She must be still bitter about the fact that they didn't let twelve year-old girls play Quidditch for Slytherin. A person had to be really desperate to resort to yelling in abandoned rooms for their Friday evening entertainment. "They're afraid of perfect prefect princess Narcy just like everyone else. Useless gits!"

Aw. Bellatrix Black was feeling abandoned. How... disturbing. 

Severus had better say something insulting to her, so that she'd go away. Otherwise she might realize that she was talking to Snivellus Snape, and start hexing him on principle. 

"I bet a mild case of the Fwooper Pox would straighten out their priorities. Isn't that the sort of thing you Blacks usually do to people whose faces you don't like?" Severus said, offhandedly. 

"You can do that?" Bellatrix bashed one of her chocolate frogs against the hearth a few times. Then she broke it in half, and watched the front hop feebly away from the back. Watching it twitch seemed to lighten her mood.

"I can do _loads _of things," Severus preened. He was building a _reputation_. "My parents run a shop on Knockturn Alley that sells special books about magic. You know what I mean - books on _real _magic, the stuff they're too scared to teach here. One day I'll show them just how much _I_ know that _they_ don't! Those spoiled Gryffindors probably don't even read books unless they're forced to at wandpoint. I bet that illiterate Sirius has an amazing library that he doesn't even use... and idiots like Potter love him for it! It's sickening."

It must be_ really_ _nice_ to be rich enough that you could afford to ride around on a high horse and not use Dark Arts to get by. They thought that they were _so _special with their posh Hogwarts educations and their family money and the jobs they were garunteed on graduation. Well, Mother had made sure that Severus was going to get an education too. He was the first of his line to do so, and he'd show those lazy self-righteous bastards that someone like him could make more of seven years at the best wizarding school in Europe than they ever could!

Bellatrix nodded, and threw Severus the mauled-up legs of her chocolate frog. Severus spent a couple of seconds staring at them in shock, before he passed he passed her his thermos of tea in return.

"Narcy's EXACTLY like that, only she's not in Gryffindor, she's just stupid. She can't do any powerful dark magic at all but she knows about horrid things like tea parties, and how to behave at balls, so everyone worships the ground she walks on. She's stupid, she's weak, and I HATE her."

The pair seethed companionably. Bellatrix's chocolate frog legs were kind of melty and still twitching and not all that appetizing, but Severus ate them anyway. Father hadn't given Severus any money to buy his own sweets. He had more important things to invest in, like shots of Dolohov's Swiftwater Vodka at the Leaky Cauldron. 

"Last winter I tried to paralyze a stray cat, but I only got the back half. I think there was something wrong with the instructions. I'm not sure where Father got that book. Sometimes I think that he buys these things solely based on how creepy their bindings look. Lots of the old families only purchase them for show," Severus confided. 

Bellatrix took a new chocolate frog out of the box, and poked its eyes out with the tip of her wand. When she let it go, it repeatedly crashed itself into the wall. Once that got boring she started scalding it with Severus' tea. Severus didn't mind. He was curous to see if all of that activity made the charm on the chocolate wear off faster.  


"Last winter I tried to explode the head of one of our house elves. It was old and useless, so Mother said that I could play with it. I practiced that curse for a week, but all that I managed to do was was to set it on fire. Andromeda started crying, and Narcy said that it was smelling up the East Wing, so Father snapped its neck without even giving me a second try! It was SO unfair," the girl pouted, frustrated.

Severus thought for a moment. She'd probably just laugh in his face rather than want to be his friend and he wasn't exactly sure how people were supposed to go about these kinds of things but maybe...  


"Think we could find some mice around here, to practice on? Nobody'd miss them," he suggested faux-casually, hopefully not sounding as nervous as he actually was. Father always said that Severus was too emotional to be a good liar.

"Everyone thinks you're strange," Bellatrix said, bluntly. "And everyone knows that Knockturn Alley is full of part-humans and uneducated criminals. ... you're not a Halfblood, are you?"

"What!?" Severus yelped. The book nearly fell out of his lap. "How can you even ask that? Of course I'm not a Halfblood!"

Bellatrix smiled.

"You know... I think some practice might be a good idea."

***

Author's Note: I've been really surprised at how few writers have played off of the fact that Bellatrix was in Snape's old "Slytherin gang." Such a titanic meeting of badasses cannot go unchronicled in fanfiction! Clearly, I had to take matters into my own hands. 

I always assumed that there must be a class of wizarding folk that go into family-run trades, because they can't afford Hogwarts. That would explain why there isn't a big contingent of students from Hogsmeade. If there's a tuition, then odds are there are people who can't afford it. All of the students in the books seem to be of middle or upper class. (True, the Weasleys are poor, but that poverty is treated as a noteable exception rather than the rule, and Arthur seems to have a pretty decent job.) 


End file.
